Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

This fall, APU launched the Honors Program for Global Citizenship. This is a special program designed to cultivate students who can become role models for other APU students and who can contribute to both APU and the local community. On September 23, an opening ceremony was held for the first batch of 17 students, which included nine international students (from the United States, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Finland, France, Bulgaria and Vietnam) and eight domestic students. President KORENAGA urged the students to do their best as he presented each of them with a program certificate.

The students chosen to participate as the first batch of the Honors Program will spend the next four years making the most of APU's multicultural environment as they work toward a common goal in the spirit of friendly rivalry. As program students, they will receive ample support as they strive to become "human resources who can contribute to creating the future of the Asia Pacific region."

What makes this program unique? According to program coordinator Associate Professor ISOMINE Sei of the Education Development and Learning Support Center, "The biggest feature of this program is that it does not merely gather the best and the brightest in one place. The students on this program were selected for their potential to make contributions in a wide range of fields, including extracurricular activities, leadership, volunteering, and regional events, in an effort to create a model for cooperative learning, a core element of APU's basic philosophy. Over the next four years, we will help students grow by having faculty and staff mentors provide them with regular advising, and this is something you don't see in other APU programs. Going forward, I hope these students will actively strive to take what they've gained from various events, learning opportunities, and networking sessions to give something back to the university and the community as they internalize the importance of altruism."

(Photo caption: President KORENAGA (front row center)
poses with the first batch of Honors Program students and their faculty and staff mentors)

(Honors Program for Global Citizenship: An Illustration)